Metal Detectorist Lost

Someone who I assume to be an artefact hunter asks me to do his footwork for him:

Could you signpost or provide a link to the laws/ regulations relating to metal detecting in France. Despite Google I can only seem to find interpretations which don't refer or link to the source of the knowledge.

He and any other people intending to go artefact-hoiking abroad (and those buying artefacts coming from foreign countries) would do well to have a look at the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws'.

2756 laws of 188 Member States are published on the Database website. There have been 10,812 researches and 1,196.049 impressions in the last three months.

UPDATE 
Uh-oh, though ten thousand other folk have managed it recently, he does not seem to be able to suss out how the search engine works...  metal detectorists, huh?

What you need, Mark is the Code du patrimoine Version consolidée au 12 mai 2017; probably what you are looking for is in Livre V Archéologie/ Titre III: Fouilles Archéologiques programmées et Decouvertes Fortuites (for example (Section 1 : Autorisation de fouilles par l'Etat. (Articles L531-1 à L531-8), Section 3 : Découvertes fortuites. (Articles L531-14 à L531-19)) but probably most of all Titre IV : Dispositions Diverses, in which if you look, you'll find: Chapitre 2 : Utilisation de détecteurs de métaux. Is that it? Can you manage by yourself now?